Sophie and Jason are strange the way all couples are strange when theyre alone. They live in a small LA apartment, have jobs they hate, and in one month theyll adopt a stray cat named Paw Paw. Like a newborn baby, hell need around-the-clock care  he may die in six months, or it may take five years. Despite their good intentions, Sophie and Jason are terrified of their looming loss of freedom. So with just one month left, they quit their jobs, and the Internet, to pursue their dreams  Sophie wants to create a dance, Jason wants simply to be guided by fate.

But as the month slips away, Sophie becomes increasingly, humiliatingly paralyzed. In a moment of desperation, she calls a stranger, Marshall  a square, fifty-year-old man who lives in the Valley. In his suburban world she doesnt have to be herself; as long as she stays there, shell never have to try (and fail) again. Living in two terrifyingly vacant and different realities, Sophie and Jason must reunite with time, space and their own souls in order to come home.